Clinton Global Initiative

Denver will host the Clinton Global Initiative America next June and June 2015, attracting the country's top thinkers and famous faces in business, government and philanthropy, local organizers announced Friday.

Businesses have ponied up $2 million as well as the venue, the Sheraton Downtown, to bring the event — and the world's attention — to Colorado for "at least" the next two years, organizers said.

Former President Bill Clinton and CGI America staffers chose Denver because of the reputation it earned after the DNC and because of local business leaders' commitment to lure CGI America to the foot of the Rocky Mountains, said Steve Bachar, co-chair of the host committee and CEO of Silver Bullet Water Treatment Co.

Although the number of attendees and entourage will be relatively small — about 1,200 to 1,400 — the weight of the discussions will bring leaders, Nobel laureates and reporters from around the world, Farber and Bachar said.

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Such events help cement a city's reputation as a world-class seed bed for tourism and business, they said.

"This brings a strong sense of community pride," Bachar said. "People all over the U.S., businesses all over the U.S. and the world are going to be seeing and thinking about Colorado, and that allows for economic development just by showing off Denver."

Bachar, a former Clinton White House and Treasury Department staff member, began the effort to land CGI America by contacting organizers after last year's event in Chicago.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton addresses the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Meeting in Chicago, Thursday, June 13, 2013. The former first lady offered her most extensive description of her post-Obama administration agenda since leaving her role as the nation's top diplomat. (Scott Eisen, Associated Press)

Clinton established the Clinton Global Initiative in 2005 to convene leaders to seek — and put into motion — solutions to the world's biggest problems. In 2011, he began the nationally focused CGI America to take on domestic issues — including jobs, the economy, education and health care — "to solve things the government can't," Bachar said

For the first three years, CGI America has been in Chicago, President Barack Obama's hometown.

This year's event, which took place Thursday and Friday, brought in participants such as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie; Hillary Rodham Clinton and daughter Chelsea; Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel; Goodwill Industries president and CEO Jim Gibbons; Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett; and American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten.

Farber and Bachar said it was too soon to announce any speakers who might come to Denver next year.

Because of the 2014 and 2015 events in Denver, the Clinton name is likely to garnter attention from swing-state Colorado in the run-up to the 2016 presidential race. Also, Hillary Clinton, often cited as a potential presidential candidate, was co-host of this week's event.

In Colorado's 2008 Democratic caucus, Obama beat the former first lady and New York senator handily in Colorado — 79,344 votes to 38,567 — including a 70-30 split in Denver.

Farber said President Clinton's work — both during his time in office and with CGI America — has reached across party lines.

"It's not a political event," Bachar said. "What President Clinton was able to do as president is the same thing he's doing here, bring together people who can rise above partisan political points of view."